Card connector with a frame

ABSTRACT

A card connector includes an insulating housing ( 10 ), a number of contacts ( 20 ), an ejector ( 30 ) and a metal frame ( 40 ). The insulating housing ( 10 ) defines a card receiving space ( 13 ) with a card insertion/ejecting direction. The contacts ( 20 ) are retained in the insulating housing ( 10 ). The ejector ( 30 ) is assembled to the insulating housing ( 10 ), including a slider movable in the card insertion/ejecting direction and a spring with a precompression at a preliminary position. The metal frame supports the opposed ends of the ejector to hold the elasticity of the spring.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is generally related to a card connector, andespecially to a card connector which is adapted for insertion/ejectingof a card.

2. Description of Related Art

Card connectors are widely used in variety electrical equipments forbuilding electrical paths between the electrical equipments andelectrical cards. A card connector usually has an ejector for ejectingthe electrical card received therein, furthermore, to make sure thespring member of the ejector has enough elasticity to eject theelectrical card, the spring member is given a precompression at anpreliminary position, so the insulating housing which generally supportsthe spring get a force by the spring in the preliminary position. Duringa process of soldering the terminals of the card connector to a printcircuit board, the insulating housing has to be set in a furnace to beheated, and then the part of the insulating housing forced by the springwill be destroyed.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,875,033 discloses a commonly card connector adapted forreceiving an electrical card. The card connector defines a cardreceiving space and comprises an insulating housing, a plurality ofcontacts received in the insulating housing, an eject mechanism and ametal shell covering the insulating housing. The eject mechanism isdisposed in the insulating housing, and comprises a slider formed with aheart-shape groove and movable along an insertion/ejecting direction, aguiding pin and a spring. The spring has two ends respectively abuttingagainst the slider and a sidewall of the metal shell at a primaryposition, and an end of the slider away from the spring is against theinsulating housing. So the metal shell and the insulating housing holdthe elasticity of the spring at the primary position, together, but theinsulating housing still need to hold a part elasticity, and the problemdoes not be solved completely.

Hence, an improved card connector is highly desired to overcome theaforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cardconnector, which supports the resilient member of the ejector by a metalframe.

To achieve the above object, a card connector is adapted for receiving acard and comprises an insulating housing defining a card receiving spacewith a card insertion/ejecting direction, a plurality of contactsretained in the insulating housing, an ejector received in theinsulating housing and a metal frame. The ejector has a slider movablealong the card insertion/ejecting direction, an ejector member and aresilient member disposed in an end of the slider. The metal frame holdsthe ejector at a preliminary position, with two opposed endsrespectively abutting against the slider and the resilient member at anoriginal position.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present inventionwill be drawn from the following detailed description of a preferredembodiment of the present invention with attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an assembled, perspective view of a card connector inaccordance with the present invention with a card therein;

FIG. 2 is a partially exploded, perspective view of the card connectorin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an perspective view of the insulating housing of the cardconnector in FIG. 1 with a plurality of contacts retained therein;

FIG. 4 is an exploded, perspective view of the ejector of the cardconnector in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is an exploded, perspective view of the card connector inaccordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1-2, the card connector in accordance with thepresent invention is adapted for receiving a card 100, such as a SIMcard. The card connector comprises an insulating housing 10, a pluralityof contacts 20 received in the insulating housing 10, an ejector 30, ametal frame 40 and a shell 50 for covering the insulating housing 10.

Referring to FIG. 3, the insulating housing 10 is approximately arectangle configuration. The insulating housing 10 comprises a bottomwall 11 and a pair of opposite right and left sidewalls 12 extendingupwardly from lateral sides of the bottom wall 11, which commonly definea card receiving space 13 for accommodating the SIM card 100. The bottomwall 11 defines an U-shape opening 14 at rear edge thereof and is formedwith a plurality of rectangular passages 110 arranged in two rows alonga card insertion/ejecting direction. Each passage 110 is through thebottom plate 11 in an up-and down direction. The bottom plate 11 definesa receiving recess 15 adjacent to and extending along a sidewall 12 forreceiving the ejector 30. A rectangle slot 150 is defined in a center ofthe receiving recess 15 with a same figure as the passage 110. Thepassagess 110 and the rectangle slot 150 ulteriorly extend rearward toform a plurality of channels (not labeled) communicating with theopening 14 for retaining the contacts 20.

The contacts 20 which are insert-molded with the insulating housing 10respectively, include six signal contacts 21 divided into two groups andtwo grounding contacts 22 arranged in a line. Each contact 20 comprisesa contacting portion 23, an intermediate portion (not labeled) extendingrearward from the contacting portion 23 and molded in the insulatinghousing 10 and a soldering portion 24. The contacting portions 23 of thesignal contacts 21 are received in the corresponding passage 110 andexposed into the card receiving space 13 for contacting with the card100, the contacting portions 23 of the grounding contacts 22 arereceived in the rectangle slot 150 and protrude from the bottom plate 11for contacting with the ejector 30. All the soldering portions 24 extendrearward to expose into the opening 14, and the ends of the solderingportions 24 are arranged in a line and inwardly of the rear face of theinsulating housing 10.

Referring to FIG. 3, the receiving recess 15 is along the cardinsertion/ejecting direction for accommodating the ejector 30, the rightsidewall 12 of the insulating housing 10 is formed with a pair of frontand rear walls 16 at front and rear ends of the receiving recess 15. Thebottom wall 11 defines a groove 152 under the card receiving space 13and communicating with a rear end of the receiving recess 15. A column162 protrudes forwardly from the rear wall 16 and is exposed into thereceiving recess 15, a gap 153 is formed on the receiving recess 15under the column 162 and downwardly through the receiving recess 15. Adownwardly recessed hole 161 is formed on the rear wall 16 in alignmentwith the column 162 along the card insertion/ejecting direction.

Referring to FIGS. 3-5, the ejector 30 is used for ejecting the SIM card100 out of the card connector. The ejector 30 comprises a slider 31, apin member 33, a resilient member 34 located on a rear end of the slider31 and an ejecting member 320 for contacting and ejecting the SIM card100 directly. In this embodiment, the resilient member 34 is a springand the ejecting member 320 is a separate component. However, theejecting member 320 also can be unitary with the slider 31 on conditionthat the ejecting member 320 can protrude into the card receiving space13 to eject the SIM card 100.

The slider 31 is approximately an elongated cube configuration andmovable along the card insertion and ejecting direction with the SIMcard 100 inserted and ejected. The slider 31 is movably received in thereceiving recess 15 of the insulating housing 10, the slider 31 definesa heart-shaped slot 312 recessed downwardly from a top face thereof, asemi-circular receiving hole 313 recessed forwardly from a rear facethereof and a plurality of through slots 311 recessed downwardly from atop face through a bottom face of lateral sides of the slider 31.

One end of the spring 34 is disposed around the column 162 of the rearwall 16 and the other end is set in the receiving hole 313 of the slider31. One end of the pin member 33 is moveably disposed in theheart-shaped slot 312 of the slider 31 and the other end is securelylocked in the hole 161 of the front wall 16 of insulating housing 10.The pin member 33 and the heart-shaped slot 312 are referred as aholding equipment, which can hold the slider 31 and the card 100 in afinal position where the card 100 is electrically connected with thecard connector, and can release the slider 31 when ejecting the card100.

The ejecting member 320 is stamped from a metal sheet. The ejectingmember 320 comprises a horizontal plate 321 and an upright holding arm322 extending upward and rearward from a rear end of inner side of thehorizontal plate 321 adjacent to the card receiving space 13. Aplurality of hooks 324 protrudes upwardly from the holding arm 322 andlateral sides of the horizontal plate 321, respectively. In addition,the holding arm 322 is formed with a rectangular plate-shaped ejectingarm 323 bent from a free end thereof and transversely protruding intothe card receiving space 13 and locating in the groove 152 of the bottomwall 11. The ejecting member 320 is securely assembled to a bottom faceof the slider 31 with the hooks 324 interferencely received in thethrough slots 311 of the slider 31.

referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, the metal frame 40 is formed by a metalbar and comprises a rectangle horizontal plate 41 and two upright frontand rear blocking wall 42 bent downwardly from front and rear ends ofthe horizontal plate 41 and each defining a aperture 43. The horizontalplate 41 has a same length as that of the receiving recess 15 of thebottom wall 11. The metal frame 40 covers the ejector 30, with thehorizontal plate 41 over a top face of the ejector 30, the frontblocking walls 42 inserting into an interspace between the slider 31 andthe front wall 16 and the rear blocking walls 42 inserting into aninterspace between the spring 34 and the rear wall 16. The apertures 43of the blocking wall 42 are used for passing through by the column 162and the end of the pin member 33 close to the hole 161, respectively. Infact, the front and rear blocking walls 42 not only closes to but alsoabuts against the slider 31 and the spring 34.

The spring 34 has a precompression at a preliminary position to get anenough force at a final position for ejecting the card 100, the blockingwalls 42 of the metal frame 40 support the elasticity of the spring 34,the elasticity of the spring 34 does not act on the insulating housing10, so the front and rear wall 16 of the insulating housing 10 will notdistort by an outside force in a process of soldering the contacts 20 toa print circuit board (not labeled), during which the insulating housingneed be put in a heating furnace. More important, the metal frame 40will keep the precompression of the spring 34 at the preliminaryposition and the ejector 30 working normally. In addition, since themetal frame 40 covers the ejector 30, the pin member 33 will not fly outof the card connector.

Referring to FIG. 5, the shell 50 is made of metal sheet to cover thehousing 10. The shell 50 comprises a top plate 51, a pair of oppositeright and left side portions 52 extending downwardly from lateral sidesof the top plate 51 and a front wall 53 bent from a front edge of thetop plate 51. A rectangular opening 512 is defined in rear end of thebase potion 51 to communicate with the opening 14 of the insulatinghousing 10. Each side portion 52 is formed with a pair of soldering feet520 on opposite distal ends along the card insertion direction for beingmounted on a printed circuit board (not shown). Each side portion alsoprovide a plurality of mating holes 521 and an engaging piece 522, theinsulating housing 10 is formed with a plurality of wedges 120 and aprotruding block 121 in each sidewall 12 to mate with the correspondingmating holes 521 and the engaging piece 522, respectively. Thus, theshell 50 is securely assembled to the insulating housing 10.

The SIM card 100 defines a cutout 101 in a corner between a rear end anda left side thereof. The left sidewall 12 of the insulating housing 10is formed with a slanting face 122 faced to the card receiving space 13at rear end thereof to recognize the cutout 101 in order to prevent theSIM card 100 from mismating. In process of the SIM card 100 insertingthe card connector, a rear end of a right side of the card 100 willdrive the slider 31 to move along the card insertion direction and tourge the spring 34 to elastically distort. In the meantime, the pinmember 33 moves along the heart-shaped slot 312 of the ejector 30 tomake the slider 31 finally achieve a final position or a lockingposition where the card 100 is electrically connected with the contacts20 accurately and fully. In addition, the grounding contacts 22 areelectrically connected with the horizontal plate 321 of the ejectingmember 320 of the ejector 30 to discharge static.

When ejecting the card 100, a rearward push force is exerted to the card100 to make the pin member 33 move along the heart-shaped slot 312 againso as to release the slider 31 from the final position. At this time,the resilient restorable force of the spring 34 urges the slider 31 tomove along the card ejecting direction so as to eject the card 100 outof the card connector in virtue of the ejecting arm 323 of ejector 30pushing the card 100.

While a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present inventionhas been shown and described, equivalent modifications and changes knownto persons skilled in the art according to the spirit of the presentinvention are considered within the scope of the present invention asdescribed in the appended claims.

1. A card connector adapted for receiving a card, comprising: aninsulating housing defining a card receiving space with a cardinsertion/ejecting direction; a plurality of contacts retained in theinsulating housing; an ejector received in the insulating housingcomprising a slider movable along the card insertion/ejecting direction,an ejecting member, and a resilient member disposed in an end of theslider; a shell attached to the housing and confirming the cardreceiving space; and a metal frame discrete from the shell holding andcovering above the ejector at one side of the insulating housing at apreliminary position, with two taps formed on the two ends respectivelyabutting against the slider and the resilient member in such a way thatthe slider and the resilient member are sandwiched between the two tapsof the metal frame.
 2. The card connector as described in claim 1,wherein the metal frame comprises a base and two front and rear blockingwalls respectively bent from front and rear ends of the base, the frontand rear blocking walls respectively abutting against the resilientmember and the slider.
 3. The card connector as described in claim 2,wherein the slider defines a heart-shape slot, the rear blocking wallabutting against the slider defines an aperture, the ejector comprises apin member with two ends, one end movable along the heart-shape slot andthe other retained to the insulating housing through the aperture. 4.The card connector as described in claim 2, wherein the resilient memberis a spring, the insulating housing is formed with a column for seatingthe spring, and the front blocking wall defines an aperture for passingthrough by the column.
 5. The card connector as described in claim 1,wherein the metal frame comprises a horizontal plate and two uprightfront and rear blocking walls respectively bent downwardly from frontand rear ends of the horizontal plate, the front and rear blocking wallsrespectively abutting against the resilient member and the slider. 6.The card connector as described in claim 1, wherein the ejecting memberof the ejector is stamped from a metal sheet and formed with an ejectingarm extending transversely protruding into the card receiving space toexpose in the card receiving space.
 7. The card connector as describedin claim 6, wherein the ejecting member has a horizontal plate, anupright holding arm extending upward from a front end of the horizontalplate, and the ejecting arm being disposed at a free end of the holdingarm, the ejecting member being assembled to the slider with thehorizontal plate against the bottom face of the slider.
 8. The cardconnector as described in claim 6, wherein the insulating housingdefines a receiving recess along the card insertion/ejecting directionfor accommodating the ejector and a groove transversely communicatingwith a rear end of the receiving recess for setting the ejecting arm ofthe ejecting member.
 9. The card connector as described in claim 1,wherein the contacts have grounding contacts to contact with theejecting member.
 10. The card connector as described in claim 1, whereinthe insulating housing defines an opening at a rear end thereof, eachcontact has a soldering portions, the soldering portions are exposed inthe opening and inwardly of the rear face of the insulating housing. 11.A card connector adapted for receiving a card, comprising: an insulatinghousing defining a card receiving space with a card insertion/ejectingdirection; a plurality of contacts retained in the insulating housing;an ejector received in the insulating housing comprising a slidermovable along the card insertion/ejection direction, an ejecting member,and a resilient member disposed around an end of the slider; a shellattached to the housing and confining the card receiving space; and ametal frame having a horizontal plate with two metallic tabsintersecting with said insertion/ejecting direction and spaced from eachother along said card insertion/ejection direction; wherein said twometallic tabs respectively abutting against the resilient member and theslider; wherein said slider and said resilient member are movabledisposed in a space between said two metallic tabs along saidinsertion/ejecting direction so as to assure that all forces generatedby said resilient member along said insertion/ejecting direction will beabsorbed by said two metallic tabs without affecting the housing. 12.The card connector as claim in claim 11, wherein said two metallic tabsare integrally formed each other.
 13. The card connector as claim inclaim 12, wherein said frame receives said ejector therein.
 14. The cardconnector as claim in claim 13, wherein said metallic shell fullyupwardly shields the whole frame thereabouts in a vertical directionwithout being exposed to an exterior.
 15. The card connector as claimedin claim 14, wherein both of said metallic tabs are hidden behindcorresponding portions of the housing in said insertion/ejectiondirection without being exposed to the exterior.
 16. The card connectoras claimed in claim 14, wherein said corresponding portions of thehousing are hidden behind another corresponding portions of the shell insaid insertion/ejection direction without being exposed to the exterior.17. The card connector as claim in claim 11, wherein said two metallictabs are unitarily formed each other.
 18. A card connector adapted forreceiving a card, comprising: an insulating housing defining a cardreceiving space with a card insertion/ejecting direction; a plurality ofcontacts retained in the insulating housing; an ejector received in theinsulating housing comprising a slider movable along the cardinsertion/ejecting direction, an ejecting member, and a resilient memberdisposed around an end of the slider; a metallic shell attached to thehousing and confining the card receiving space; two metallic tabsintersecting with said insertion/ejecting direction; wherein the twometallic tabs respectively abutting against the resilient member and theslider in such away that the slider and the resilient member aresandwiched between the two metallic taps along the insertion/ejectingdirection experiencing a force along the insertion direction derivedfrom the resilient member; wherein the metallic tab is discrete fromsaid metallic shell, and fully upwardly shielded by said metallic shellwithout being exposed to an exterior.
 19. The card connector as claimedin claim 18, wherein said metallic tabs is further hidden behind acorresponding portion of the housing along the ejecting directionwithout being exposed to the exterior.
 20. The card connector as claimedin claim 19, wherein said corresponding portion of the housing isfurther hidden behind another corresponding portion of the shell alongsaid ejecting direction without being exposed to the exterior.